Belive this one at your own risk: The Sun in the UK is reporting that, due to his commitment to the BBC series Sherlock, Martin Freeman has turned down an offer to play Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit.

The idea that Freeman might be offered the part isn’t at all difficult to believe, and he’s long been one of the first names mentioned in fantasy casting of the film. Between roles on The Office and as Arthur Dent in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Freeman has already been a big part of two geek-friendly properties. Might as well go for the trifecta.

And he looks rather Hobbit-like already, so why not have him be Bilbo? Other than the fact I”m not really convinced that Freeman has what will be required to hold down the center of a pair of fantasy adventure films like The Hobbit parts one and two. Looking the part isn’t quite enough, and while I like Freeman a lot and think he’s quite appealing as a comic actor, I’m not convinced that he’s the guy around whom to build these films.

Anyway, this is the Sun, which is correct about movie casting news roughly as often as your dog might be if you asked him to drool on a list of actor names for any potential film. So this isn’t yet anything to take very seriously in the first place. [TheOneRing]